Okay! So after that Ortega/Eri sequence, I return back to Uva Academy to find Clive standing in front of the gates waiting for me. He talks about bringing this little performance to an end, upon which he reveals his true identity, taking off his pompadour clothes to reveal... Director Clavell! How did you hide those pants under those shorts, I will never know.
Clive gives this dramatic reveal that the boy known as Clive is actually... Director Clavell! DUN DUNN DUNNNN! Plot twist!
...and I have the option of calling him out immediately for it. Clavell is shocked, because his disguise was perfect, and he attributes me seeing through his disguise when he 'neglected to keep up his youthful act' on several occasions. Which... yeah, most importantly, probably during that whole bit with Harrington and Ortega, but I'm sure he did get a bit serious at the ends of each Team Star base.
Then Clavell announces that the true identity of Cassiopeia, the Big Boss of Team Star... was him all along! DUN DUNN DUNNNN! Plot twist!
Now this isn't too unbelievable as a plot twist that Pokemon would pull on us, though obviously the facts don't line up if you think about it too hard. Clavell claims that the voice of Cassiopeia is a pre-recorded voice that he did with one of those 'high-tech gizmos'. Very clever, yes! Clavell demands to face me in one last showdown to decide it all, and we finally get to fight the director himself
He leads up with an Oranguru, which... I get it! He's a teacher, and a guru is a teacher! Rabsca makes quick work of it with a Bug Buzz, and so did the Houndoom that comes afterwards... and so did the Abomasnow that came after that. Okay, okay. Not really seeing the thematic pattern with Clavell other than the Oranguru, but sure.
His next Pokemon is a Polteageist, which I thought was cutely thematic considering what a sir he is, and that Polteageist falls to a Throat Chop. I absolutely love the fancy animation of Throat Chop, and particularly when I do it to Pokemon without a throat. Clavell sends out an Amoonguss next, which... yeah, there's no real rhyme or reason to his team. That's neat, I suppose.
But then Clavell summons his final Pokemon, and it's... Quaquaval! The dancing duck-man with a huge fancy hairdo and... okay, he actually looks a bit nicer in motion, particularly when his tail explodes out into those psychic peacock tail feathers. I still think I like him the least out of all the three starters? I dunno. Maybe it's because I've seen Meowscarada a couple of times and got a chance to get used to his design? I don't know. I just thank goodness I have my crocodile child here with me. At least I like one of the starter final evolutions this time around! Also, it's still very cool that Clavell, who basically takes over the role of the professor mentor, has one of the starters that isn't picked by me or my rival.
Anyway, Brambleghast kills this peacock dancer and Clavell falls.
Clavell finally admits that he's not Cassiopeia. DUN DUNN DUNNNN! Plot twist! But him and Clive being the same person was not a lie. He talks about the reasons of doing this, basically noting that he has a guess about who Cassiopeia's true identity is, and he doesn't want me the agony of confronting them in battle. Which... I dunno. I don't think I quite have the same bond with Penny the way I did Nemona, Arven or even Clavell himself. But okay, then.
Clavell notes that he just wants to test my resolve, and if I lost, he would've brought down Cassiopeia himself... he bows down to me and asks for my help in taking down Cassiopeia and saving her. And then we get a fun comedic bit where Ms. Tyme comes out, about to investigate an unauthorized battle on school grounds, finding out that it's the academic director himself, and demands to report this to the school council board. Clavell runs off after Tyme, begging her not to do so.
Meanwhile, I confront Penny in the schoolyard, where she shows up. Literally her entire design is the same, it's just that she's got her hood up, but still we're treated to a dramatic un-hooding. And Penny is the same person as Cassiopeia all along! DUN DUNN DUNNNN! Plot twist!
She's been wanting to take down Team Star to have them go back to school, basically, which is already kind of obvious the moment we learn about that from the Giacomo base from Clavell, and apparently she got the kinda when she saw me fight those two first Team Star goons. But then she doesn't really want to see Team Star roll over and die like that, which leads to her to want to challenge me at least once. Not sure what that will prove, but... okay, sure?
"Clive" shows up, clearly taking time to write his apology letter. Or, uh, make preparations. Penny asks Clive to record the battle to show to the rest of Team Star later on, before introducing herself as Cassiopeia, no, Penny.
Okay, then. More of a 'soul-searching' bit, and Penny sends out an... Umbreon! I don't know why I didn't get clued to this a bit earlier -- not even when I played through the game itself -- but Penny's Eeveelution team is foreshadowed with that Eevee backpack! Not even foreshadowed, it's outright outlined to us! Rabsca barely survives a Dark Pulse before taking out the Umbreon with a Bug Buzz, then Garganacl takes out the Flareon. The Vaporeon kind of got bullied by my Clodsire soaking up its Hydro Pumps. Then Lokix one-shots the Leafeon with a First Impression, and then Clodsire Earthquakes the Jolteon.
...not a very impressive showing from Penny, honestly, though I do think that I've grown a bit overleveled after the Elite Four and Champion. Penny summons her final Pokemon, Sylveon, and tells it to Terastralize, and 'shine bright like the starry sky and become who you really want to be'. Get it? Starry sky, Team Star? And because all members of Team Star do go through a bit of a journey of self-acceptance and self-discovery except for its founder?
Sylveon transforms into its Fairy Tera Form and it's got a big-ass heart with tacky cheap jewelry thingamabobs hanging off its side. It's, uh... I guess this one is appropriately tacky? Anyway, Clodsire tanks the Moonblast before taking out the Sylveon with a Poison Jab and that's that for Team Star.
We then cut away to the night that Team Star disbands, with Cassiopeia calling the five squadron bosses and telling them that they should 'call it quits'. The five goons are confused, because they didn't see it as getting carried away. After all, they merely got the bullies to run off (and ultimately quit the school) merely by intimidation. I read the Harrington explanation from before wrong, too, because the original bullies aren't even intimidated by the Starmobiles, just their outfits. Okay, yeah, I guess Eri, Mela and Atticus are kinda intimidating!
After the bullies blubbered and apologized and ran off, they apparently 'made a huge stink' about what happened, leading them to leaving the school and tarnishing Team Star's reputation. Which... again, makes it even more confusing that neither Clavell or any of the teachers or the rest of at least Mesagoza isn't aware of what went down, but at least Penny going for broke and doing the emotional thing of just disbanding Team Star immediately makes sense for an emotional teenager. She goes off and says that she will fix this part on her end, before cutting communications with the rest of the squadron leaders.
Penny wants to take responsibility for everything, which leads to the aforementioned 'exile' into Galar, while Giacomo and the others are confused why she's so intent on taking all the blame on her own. Penny thanks the team for being so kind to her, and says goodbye, with the team blissfully unaware that she's right outside the window as she walks off.
Penny then declares how this is the end of Team Star, and also offers an explanation that she couldn't just order the other Team Star leaders to disband because their code states that no one has the right to order the others around. Fair enough, bullying victims would definitely respect each other's autonomies. Which is why Penny used the whole code thing to take down Team Star. Clive asks Penny what Team Star means to her, and, of course, as per the running theme of this whole damn questline, they're her greatest treasure!
...and then Clive walks up and reveals a huge thing to Penny. He strips and changes clothes, and he's actually Director Clavell! DUN DUNN DUNNNN! Plot twist!
Hilariously, despite also having a secret identity herself, Penny is actually completely and utterly blindsided by Clive and Clavell being the same person. She even tells Clive to 'quit with the old geezer act', which... I don't know. This running gag should be something that makes me roll my eyes, but I really do find it kinda funny. Though Penny still calls out how the outfit is too much and how she has certain feelings about the wig.
The five Team Star goons show up and finally greets 'Big Boss' for the first time. I find it adorable that Eri calls her 'B.B.'! They are all very supportive of Penny, and they say 'hasta la vistar' to Cassiopeia, and hello to Penny. Aww...
This cutscene still continues on, because after that heartwarming reunion, Clavell walks up... and does a deep bow, apologizing deeply for the faults of the Uva Academy. He is absolutely correct that his handling of the situation has been a dismal and utter failure, because he's an adult responsible for a whole academy and didn't even do the damn research on how this whole mess ended up happening! Though he also did acknowledge that the Uva Academy he experienced was one free from bullying, making him blinded to the fact that this environment was 'built on the backs of your hurt and anger'.
Clavell revokes the threat of expulsion, and so Team Star can keep remaining. Giacomo and the others also point out about how they're already on page about how they figured out that Penny did the whole Operation Starfall thing to keep them from getting expelled, which is, again, very nice.
...at which point Clavell interrupts and starts getting angry at them, because there are issues that needed to be addressed, like their protracted truancy, misuse of school facilities... and... the brazen customization of school uniforms? Okay, I kinda am down on Nintendo for removing that option (especially when Legends Arceus had it!) but it is kinda funny that they are really doubling down on this in-universe reason of why our characters can't change their outfits.
Clavell then puts them into community service, where they run the STC's, the Star Training Centers. DUN DUNN DUNNNN! Plot twist! Basically they're trying to make the rush battle thing into something akin to a training facility for trainers in Uva Academy, which will allow students to battle and train and whatnot.
And then we get another scene in Clavell's office, where Clavell thanks us, and then Penny shows up, declares her intention to get punished even more severely. Because she's the leader? No, because, uh, she's been hacking into the league funds in order to pay me with LP. Right. She's manipulating the Cryptocurrency market! Clavell got so confused that he decides to talk to Geeta about this. And Penny almost lets loose the fact that it's really not that hard for her, before cutting back into an apology.
There's a weird bit of pacing where the game lets me run around in the school for a bit without really telling me what to do, but then I exit the school and Penny calls me and asks me to meet in the stairway where I first 'saved' her from the Team Star goons. Apparently, the Pokemon League will ignore all her crimes, and offer her a job in the League after she graduates. So basically one of those hackers that gets picked up by the FBI or CIA or whatever and recruited straight to their ranks.
Penny thanks me for helping her so much with the whole Team Star situation as well as being her friend, and tells me that if there's a debt that she can pay, all I need is just to let her know. And Starfall Street closes off with a shot of Penny walking up the staircase.
Talking to Clavell after this gives me a special little cutscene where he is absolutely thankful that I decided to be a good friend to Penny, he gives me a Big Nugget (it's the 'max bond' conversation reward like the 10 Max Revives from Miriam) and thanks me for coming to this academy. Thanks, Clavell, you're pretty cool!
Which means that, well, she's going to join us in Area Zero, where she's probably going to be the de facto tech girl! And Area Zero is where we're heading next time!
Random Notes:
- It was a bit long, and there were definitely parts of it that could've been offscreened, but I really do like the Team Star storyline. They didn't really do anything too emotional and the actual bullying takes place off-screen in the past, but it is a surprisingly neat topic for Pokemon to tackle!
- "Smells worse than a Stunky's behind!" Okay, I'm not sure why I find the joke of Tyme confronting Clavell and threatening to tell on him to the board of directors is hilarious to me.
- So Espeon and Glaceon are the two Eeveelutions that Penny doesn't use, huh?
- I was actually half-expecting a brand-new Eeveelution to debut here as Penny's final Pokemon. I know it's unlikely, but it's not impossible since I haven't seen the entire Pokedex... and spoilers about a new Eevee form would spread faster than Annihilape and Dudunsparce. But I was holding out hope!
- Penny calls Giacomo 'Momo', Ortega 'Ortie', Mela 'Mellie', but both Atticus and Eri by name. Eri's girlfriend Carmen calls her Riri, which leaves Atticus as the only squadron leader without a nickname, unless I'm missing something.
- Right. Those LP. I probably should use them. Okay.
- Penny's last gift to me is the TM for Draco Meteor, which made me do a bit of a double take because it has absolutely nothing to do with the Eeveelutions theme.
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